1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to orange juice products which have improved flavor and/or aroma characteristics that are achieved by manipulating separated orange juice components, especially so-called sinking solids. More particularly, the invention is useful in the field of not from concentrate (NFC) orange juice. Orange juice insoluble solids, or sinking solids are manipulated whereby orange juice products are prepared that have at least one orange juice type that has an insoluble solids component other than its naturally occurring insoluble solids component.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is generally known to separate orange juice into fractions such as a serum phase and a solids or pulp phase. Known means for effecting such separation include centrifugation and filtration technologies. Often this separation is accomplished for one of two purposes. One usual purpose is for use in collecting pulp products. Another is in the context of preparing from-concentrate juices wherein the separated serum is concentrated and the previously separated pulp fraction is recombined with the thus concentrated juice.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,724,652 shows separating pulp from extracted juice by the use of a centrifuge. Concentration is practiced, the pulp is pasteurized, and the pulp is recombined with the concentrated juice. In this way, the pasteurized pulp is mixed with the concentrated liquid for purposes of preparing concentrated juices having a pulp which has not been subjected to the rigors of concentration. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,374,865 and 4,463,025 show a citrus juice process within which juice is extracted, pulp is separated, and the pulp then is recombined with the concentrated juice stream. Juice blending is suggested for flavor optimization.
It is generally known that aroma and flavor components tend to be present in sinking solids or insoluble solids, often referred to as sinking pulp, while other compounds tend to be found more extensively in the liquid phase or serum portion of the juice. For example, early on it was suggested that orange oil existed as an adsorbed layer on the sinking pulp of orange juice. Blair et al., “Exploratory Experiments To Identify Chemical Reactions Causing Flavor Deterioration During Storage Of Canned Orange Juice, I. Incompatibility of Peel-Oil Constituence With the Acid Juice”, Journal of Food Research, 17, 235 (1952). Others observed that oil was found primarily in the pulp of orange juice. Scott et al., “Composition Of Orange Juice Cloud”, Journal of Food Science, 30, 833 (1965); and Peleg et al., “Production Of Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate From Centrifugally Separated Serum And Pulp”, Journal of Food Science, 35, 649 (1970).
Radford et al., “Distribution Of Volatile Compounds Between The Pulp And Serum Of Some Fruit Juices”, Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, Volume 22, Number 6 (1974) made several evaluations regarding volatile flavor compounds of orange juice. This article observed that 98% of the limonene in an orange juice sample was recovered from the pulp phase, while only 2% was recovered from the serum phase. Other hydrocarbons such as alpha-pinene, sabinene, mycrene, and valencene were found almost exclusively in the pulp phase, whereas esters, alcohols, and aldehydes were found almost exclusively in the serum phase.
While the art generally has noted differences in the make-up of pulp or solids phases of orange juices on the one hand and the make-up of liquid or serum phases of orange juices on the other hand, recognition of these overall differences has not led to significant direct improvement of actual orange juice products.
One challenge facing the NFC orange juice industry is the problem of maintaining consist orange juice products throughout the year. The fruit setting, growing, maturing and harvesting of round oranges does not occur throughout the year, even in areas of the world having very favorable citrus growing conditions. For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, no significant industrial-scale harvesting of oranges for juice production occurs between about mid-June and about mid-September. Furthermore, currently a large volume of juice oranges which are available in important orange grove areas such as the State of Florida have taste, aroma, color and/or sensory properties which are less desirable or inferior to juice oranges available later in the season. More particularly, these later season juice oranges which have superior taste, aroma, color and sensory properties are within the Valencia family of orange cultivars, which for many years has been considered the prime juice orange type or cultivar.
The result is a non-uniform supply of juice oranges during the harvesting season and a lack of juice oranges outside of the harvesting season. This makes it impossible to use freshly extracted orange juice throughout the year and that is uniform in taste, aroma, color and sensory properties. Because of this, whole juice storage of orange juice has been practiced for many years in the NFC orange juice industry. Typically, whole Valencia juice is extracted, pasteurized and stored, usually under frozen conditions. The stored Valencia juice then is used during the time when no orange harvest is available, as well as when the dominant orange harvest provides freshly extracted pasteurized juices which are inferior to Valencia juices. In the latter situation, typically the stored Valencia pasteurized whole juice is blended with freshly extracted juice from the more inferior sources in order to provide NFC juice during this time of the season.
With more particular reference to the more inferior sources of orange juice, currently the principle juice orange which is available in the early-to-mid-season is the Hamlin juice orange. Other juice oranges which have more limited availability and a much lower degree of acceptability than Hamlin juices include other so-called early/mid-juice oranges, namely Pineapple and Parson Brown. References herein to early/mid-season oranges refer to juice oranges of this type. Similarly, references herein to late season oranges refer primarily to orange cultivars within the Valencia family.
An NFC juice product has to be a whole juice product which meets certain standards, one of which is that there be no concentrating or reconstituting during juice product production. Traditionally, this requirement has been achieved by maintaining purely whole juices, either as freshly extracted or in their stored form. It will be appreciated that storing of whole pasteurized NFC juices is very costly, both in terms of capital investment and operating costs. Often such storage facilities require storage tanks of extremely large volume on the order of hundreds of thousands of gallons. They also require operating costs to maintain the chilled condition, which is made more costly and difficult because most storage facilities are close to the orange fruit sources and production facilities, which are almost always within areas having high temperatures and humidity during the off-season or storage months. Also, such a large volume of storage requirements entails substantial labor costs.
Another cost matter of concern to NFC juice production is the greater expense associated with Valencia juices. Largely because Valencia is generally considered to be superior in overall quality (including color and oil) the citrus processing industry pays a premium, on a per pounds of solids basis, for Valencia fruit. Purchasing on a pounds solids basis is done based upon the amount of juice in a 90-pound box of fruit, multiplied by the Brix of the juice. As known, Brix generally equates to the soluble solids or dissolved solids in the fruit juice. As a result, Valencia juice is more costly for the citrus processor than is Hamlin juice per gallon, at an equal Brix strength. Thus, the lower the amount of Valencia juice needed to maintain a substantially consistent NFC juice throughout the year, the lower the cost to the citrus processor and producer of NFC pasteurized juice.
There is accordingly a need for approaches which will allow NFC juice producers to maintain a substantially consistent product throughout the calendar year while also having the opportunity to reduce cost by decreasing the relative amount of Valencia juice which needs to be stored during its off season. Further advantages could be realized if the early/mid orange juices currently available on a large industrial scale could be used more widely, either in or out of their season, than currently in use.
Needs such as these are successfully addressed by the present invention. An important element in achieving the objectives of the present invention is an appreciation that whole juice separation and recombination procedures of certain types bring about a result whereby inferior resources and superior resources are removed, combined or exchanged so as to maintain or enhance important juice qualities throughout the calendar year, while simultaneously reducing relative costs.